Check emails.
It seems a life ago
that letters all began
with the gracious salutation
Dear. Recipients learned
at the close how dear they were:
Yours sincerely signalled
concern — but lacked the warmth
of Yours affectionately.
Sometimes I burned With love
or sent, spendthrift, All
my love and a flurry
of kisses.
Today I’m Dear to no one.
Hi! you shout, as if
I nod in my office chair
and need to be prodded awake.
I don’t Hi! back: too noisy
too American.
My usual reply
is a tentative Hello.
But today I dart a curt
email without preamble:
a trendy message
this is!
You lot all sign off
with quaint Victorian
Regards. I simply put
my name. Unless, unless
I bow out with an X
or a whole line
of kisses.
X still marks the moment
when a heartbeat
misses.